


An Unexpected Engagement

by FridayMorning



Series: Give Them a Reason [6]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Catra Has Issues (She-Ra), Fluff, Post-Canon, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25055029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FridayMorning/pseuds/FridayMorning
Summary: “Melog, where are you?” All the doors in this hallway were closed. Catra did not want to pry, mainly because of who she might run into and have to explain herself to, so she hoped if Melog was in one they would hear her calling and come out.The door she was passing opened. A hand darted out, gripped Catra’s arm in a vice, and pulled her inside. Catra yelped and stumbled to the floor as the door slammed behind her. She thrashed around for a few seconds before realizing her adversary was a glowing net.Netossa leaned over her. “I need your help.”
Relationships: Catra & Netossa (She-Ra), Catra & Scorpia (She-Ra), Catra & Spinnerella (She-Ra), Netossa/Spinnerella (She-Ra)
Series: Give Them a Reason [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1784470
Comments: 9
Kudos: 186





	An Unexpected Engagement

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is a lot less serious than the others. (It's also a lot less edited, so I'm sorry about that!) Good news, though: I finally figured out what I want to happen with Catra and Glimmer, so stay tuned for that one.

“Melog?” Catra called in a cautious voice. The hallway was empty, but she did not want to risk drawing attention to herself. Though she had bettered her relationships with most of the princesses by then, there were times when she wanted to be left alone by everyone.

Everyone except Melog, that was. Ever since she woke up, her alien friend was nowhere to be found. Usually if Melog was going to wander throughout the day, they at least stayed for breakfast with Catra before departing. It unsettled her a bit, but not enough to recruit help from Adora or one of the others. She had finally gotten accustomed to navigating the castle on her own, she could handle this quest by herself.

“Melog, where are you?” All the doors in this hallway were closed. Catra did not want to pry, mainly because of who she might run into and have to explain herself to, so she hoped if Melog was in one they would hear her calling and come out.

The door she was passing opened. A hand darted out, gripped Catra’s arm in a vice, and pulled her inside. Catra yelped and stumbled to the floor as the door slammed behind her. She thrashed around for a few seconds before realizing her adversary was a glowing net.

Netossa leaned over her. “I need your help.”

. . . .

“Never speak of that again,” Catra said once Netossa had freed her. “Not one word to anyone, or I’ll- I’ll-” She struggled to come up with a threat.

“I’ll do anything you want if you can help me.”

Catra had never seen the princess so anxious. She kept grabbing fistfuls of her shirt, letting go, then grabbing again in a futile mimicry of one of the calming routines Perfuma was fond of. The sight made Catra uneasy. “That depends. What’s going on?”

“I lost my engagement necklace. I need to find it before Spinnerella notices.”

Catra tilted her head to one side. “Your… what?”

Netossa’s disbelief verged on frustration momentarily before she took a deep breath. “I guess you never learned about our culture in the Horde.” She raised her chin to expose her bare neck. “You’ve seen me wear it before because I literally never take it off. Except for today, of course, but that was only for a few _minutes_ -” She clenched her fists.

Catra took a slight step back. “Focus. First you should, uh, tell me about the necklace.”

“In Etheria when someone wants to propose, they give the other person a piece of jewelry. Usually something that will remind the gift’s receiver of the gift’s giver. That’s why my necklace is pink, and Spinnerella’s is blue and silver.” Her breathing had evened, but a wild look remained in her eye. “Oh, if Spinny found out I lost mine she would _freak_.”

“Then she won’t find out. We’ll find it,” Catra said, deciding not to question why Netossa had chosen her for the mission rather than one of her friends. Out of everyone, Netossa was the princess Catra had interacted with the least since the end of the war. _Aside from Entrapta._ Catra flicked her ears as if shaking away that train of thought. “Where did you have it last?”

“I took it off in the bathroom so I could bathe without worrying about water damage. I must have left it there by accident when I left to style my hair, and when I came back it was gone,” she recounted.

Catra turned thoughtful. “I doubt anyone stole it. No one here has a single bad bone in their body, excluding Hordak maybe, but he’s under Entrapta’s watch all the time.”

Netossa nodded and pulled a paper from her pocket. “Someone must have meant well and moved it to a safer place.” She unfolded the paper until it was triple the previous size. It was a blueprint of each floor of the castle. “That’s why I did the math and created the most efficient path for us to search this place from top to bottom.”

Catra moved her finger along the red line Netossa had drawn on the paper. She could not say for certain if it was the most efficient path, but she had only recently gotten the hang of walking from her room to Adora’s without getting lost, so it was not as if she could do any better. Plus, Netossa had always seemed good with making plans based on what Catra had seen before. “You seem to have it covered. Do I play any role other than making the search go faster?”

Netossa nodded. “I need you to interrogate everyone we come across about whether or not they’ve seen my necklace, but not make it seem like I lost it. I figured you’d be perfect for the job considering how manipulative you are.”

Catra’s ear twitched. “ _Were_ ,” she corrected, but Netossa was too lost in her own thoughts to acknowledge her.

“If we run into Spinny, though…”

“I’ll handle it,” Catra said. “Let’s start working.”

Netossa nodded and set out for the first area the red line crossed through. Catra followed. _Every five minutes one of these princesses needs my help. How did I ever lose to them?_ Adora’s face came to mind, and Catra momentarily felt weak at the knees. _Oh, shut up, you._

. . . .

“No, the last time I used that washroom the pipes looked fine. It must have started leaking after I left,” Scorpia said, looking concerned for the integrity of the room’s drainage system.

“And when was that?” Catra asked.

“I woke up around sunrise this morning, so I freshened up a little after that,” Scorpia said. “Is there anything I can do to help? Oh! I could get Entrapta or Bow-”

“Don’t worry about it.” Catra smiled and set her hand on Scorpia’s forearm. Netossa had been in the washroom after Scorpia, so she would not have seen the necklace. “We’ve got it under control, I’m just trying to estimate when the issue started. Do me a favor and don’t mention it to anyone, I don’t want this getting back to Glimmer. She has enough duties to worry about already.”

Scorpia nodded. “No problem! If you need me, I’ll be in the greenhouse.” She turned and left. Catra smiled at the energy in Scorpia’s stride on the way to meet up with her girlfriend, then tasted bile in the back of her throat. She beat it back with the thought that she had acted for a good cause.

“Wow. You are really, really good at lying to get information,” Netossa appraised. “Should I be worried?”

The corners of her mouth dipped and the taste returned. “That’s not a compliment.”

Netossa shrugged. “It’s true.” She opened a door and they stepped into a large closet. “Maybe whoever found it moved it here,” she said. The theory sounded flimsy to Catra, but she knew Netossa was determined to leave no stone unturned so she helped search each shelf.

Catra was elbow-deep in a box of fancy napkins when Netossa froze. Her ears perked up and she tuned into the sound of footsteps coming down the hall.

“Those are Spinny’s footsteps,” Netossa whispered. The cords in her neck and jaw stood out from the tension that wracked her body. Any irritation her careless words had caused Catra was forgotten.

“I’ll handle it,” Catra said. She slipped out of the closet and shut the door behind her smoothly. She turned to Spinnerella and greeted her with a smile. “Hey. Funny running into you here.”

Spinnerella blinked. She had the stance of someone on a mission with little time for distractions. “Hi, Catra. Have you seen Netossa? She was supposed to meet me for lunch.” Her voice stayed steady, but so did the concern in her eyes.

 _This is stupid, I should just tell her what’s going on. I doubt she’ll even be angry about this_ , Catra thought, but she sensed Netossa pressing her ear against the other side of the door. “No, but I know Entrapta has been hoping for Netossa to give her a demonstration of her powers sometime. Something about wanting to recreate that technology for her bots to be able to use.” It was not a complete lie; Entrapta had been bugging all of the princesses to help her better understand their powers so she could duplicate the physics involved.

“Oh. I’ll check her lab next, then. Thank you,” Spinnerella said with a grateful smile before continuing down the hallway.

Catra sighed and slumped down with her back against the wall. As soon as Spinnerella stepped foot in there, Entrapta would not let her leave without running several tests. She had bought them a bit more time. _So why do I feel so nauseous?_

The closet door creaked open. “Great job!” Netossa clapped her on the shoulder, and the reverberations rocked Catra’s stomach. “Now we can start checking the next floor. You know, I never expected to make such a great team with a Horde soldier, but-”

Catra ripped away from her hand. Claws out, fur standing up, she felt like every nerve was on fire. “Shut up!”

Netossa furrowed her eyebrows. She pressed her lips into a thin line and watched Catra struggle to control her ragged breathing.

“I’m not helping you anymore.”

Panic flitted across Netossa’s face and she opened her mouth to counter, but Catra fixed her with a steely gaze.

“In the Horde, I learned that being sneaky and manipulative was the only way to get what you wanted, that asking for something outright would lead to punishment. Ever since I joined Adora, I have tried to be better. To be honest, to control my temper, to- to be better.” Catra shut her eyes and tried to suppress the roiling in her gut. “And you asked me to help you by using those skills again, and I agreed because Adora keeps asking me to try to be closer with her friends, but you can’t ask someone to do something and shame them for it at the same time.”

Catra kept her eyes closed. She listened to Netossa’s steady breathing and tried to align her heart rate. Finally, she dared to look at the princess. “And you know what? You don’t even need me helping you like this! This isn’t the Horde. Practically everyone here ties for the place of the nicest person I’ve ever met. Nobody is going to be angry at you for losing a stupid piece of jewelry, not even Spinnerella, because if she followed your customs for a proposal, she loves you a lot.”

Netossa opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She pushed a few pieces of thick blue hair behind her ear and looked away. “You’re right. I’m sorry, you don’t have to help me anymore if you don’t want to.”

Panicked footsteps sounded down the hallway. Catra recognized them and turned in time for Melog to charge around the corner and stop short, analyzing the scene with worried blue eyes. Her friend reflected the distress they had sensed from Catra, with their mane spiked out and crackling with energy.

Catra crouched and pet her from the top of their head and down their neck with even strokes. “It’s okay now,” she said in a soft, reassuring voice. Gradually, Melog relaxed. They laid down and purred as Catra continued to lavish them with attention. Catra smiled. “I haven’t seen you in awhile. What have you been up to?” A better look at her friend caused her to blink in disbelief. Catra carefully moved one hand around Melog’s neck and undid the makeshift collar.

Netossa’s eyes widened when she turned and raised the necklace for her to see. “How?” the princess asked softly.

“No idea,” Catra replied. She scratched Melog under the chin and searched their calm gaze for any explanation.

They all turned at the sound of someone else running down the hallway. This time Sea Hawk appeared, worn out to the point where he had to lean against the wall to catch his breath. “Kitty! You worried me when you ran off,” he said. He noticed Catra and Netossa and stood upright. “Oh, hello!”

Netossa crossed her arms over her chest. “Where did you find my engagement necklace?”

Catra mimicked her stance “And why did you put it on Melog?”

Sea Hawk reddened. He sputtered. “I- I- I went to the washroom upstairs looking for Mermista, but she wasn’t there. I found the necklace, though, and then I saw your cat passing through and noticed that their color schemes matched, so I recruited them in my search. My apologies, I didn’t know-”

“It’s okay,” Netossa said, “We saw Mermista heading outside to the garden in the back for some fresh air.”

Sea Hawk nodded and saluted them both. “Thank you for your help,” he said. He turned and headed in the direction of his girlfriend.

Netossa and Catra faced each other once he was gone.

“I thought Mermista said she was on her way to find Glimmer upstairs?” Catra asked.

The corner of Netossa’s mouth lifted. “Yeah, but he took my necklace and your cat. I think he deserves to be put on pointless search, as well.”

Catra snorted. “I didn’t realize you were projecting whenever you called me devious.”

The other side of her mouth lifted, and Netossa laughed. “You may be right.” She accepted the necklace and secured it around her throat where it belonged. She sighed in relief. “Thank you.”

“At least it’s all over, now.”

Netossa glanced away, then back at her. “I mean it. And I’m sorry for being insensitive. I think… I think I’ll talk to Spinnerella about what happened.”

Catra made a dismissive hand gesture. “Don’t worry about it. We found it, didn’t we? That’s what matters.”

“No. You were right, and I want Spinnerella to know how helpful you were in my search.” She cleared her throat awkwardly and held out her hand. “We made a pretty good team.”

Catra shook it. “We did. You’re a good strategist, after all. I’ve known that since I joined your side.”

“And you…” Netossa looked down at their hands and back up at Catra’s face. “You’re a good person. I’ve known that since you joined, too.”

Catra felt a weight lift from her shoulders. “Thanks.” She let go of Netossa’s hand to rub the top of Melog’s head. “See you at dinner?”

Netossa nodded. “See you then.”

They went their separate ways. During the walk to her bedroom Catra was overcome by a yawn so great that her jaw made a popping sound. She smiled. "You know what I could go for?” she asked aloud, “A really, really long nap.” Melog purred and nudged her side as if seconding the idea.

For the next three hours, Catra experienced the best catnap of her life.


End file.
